Worldlog week 44 – 2013

Last week was Autumn Recess in the Lower House. There were no debates, but work continued as per usual. I worked at such things as asking parliamentary questions as a result of a ruling by Minister Ploumen of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation. The minister committed to providing her support to a meat processor and calf slaughter in promoting the international veal trade. Given the recent food scandals, I think this commitment is inappropriate – the livestock and meat industries are contending with a series of scandals, such as meat that contains faecal bacteria and trimming away thawed, green and smelly meat to sell as fresh meat. Research into the risks in the Dutch meat sector is currently underway. To be continued!

The French documentary Encounters with an Egalitarian: Yves Bonnardel was released last week. The documentary explores Yves Bonnardel’s philosophy. He is a French animal rights activist and has many publications to his name that chiefly detail the place we give animals in Western society and the various ways we use them. Go to http://egalitariste.com/ for a 30-minute French language documentary with English subtitles.

There are just three days left to sign the petition for a laboratory animal-free Europe! The http://www.stopvivisection.eu/ website has collected more than one million signatures to push the European Union into making different choices when it comes to research that involved laboratory animals. One million signatures makes it possible to join in on the European discussion so it’s fantastic that they’ve reached that goal, although the more signatures they obtain, the more likely Europe is to look at other options as far as research that uses animals is concerned.

Listen to this incredible song ‘Say No’. It contains a strong argument against trophy hunting in African countries.

Some cool news: The Animal Politics Foundation (APF) is organising an international conference on 12 and 13 December on animal rights and animal politics in Istanbul. The APF supports the Party for the Animals in its international activities. The APF will use this conference to translate political theories on political representation for animals into practice and vice versa. The APF hopes the conference will lead to more contact between the people involved in this political movement. That would definitely be a good thing!

I am going to Lisbon and Madeira at the start of January next year speak to the local PAN representatives, as part of my work to promote ties between the various Parties for the Animals. Madeira has one PAN representative in parliament and Lisbon voted one in recently as well. It’s wonderful seeing PAN give shape to a political animal rights party in Portugal!

See you next week!

Marianne